Between Narrow Seas and Empty Silos: How War in Iran Reaches the World’s Breadbaskets

In the fields of the world, the next harvest often begins long before the first seed touches the soil.

It begins in factories where ammonia is made from gas and pressure. In ports where white granules wait in sacks beneath cranes. In freight lanes where cargo ships move quietly through narrow seas. It begins in decisions farmers make at kitchen tables, penciling costs against uncertain weather and uncertain markets.

And sometimes, the future of bread begins in a strait.

Far from wheat fields in Kansas, rice paddies in India, or soybean farms in Brazil, the waters of the Strait of Hormuz have become a silent force in next year’s grain harvests. As war involving Iran disrupts shipping and production across the Gulf, the world’s fertilizer trade is tightening—and the consequences may not be felt fully until the crops of 2027 begin to grow.

For farmers already burdened by low crop prices, the arithmetic is turning bleak.

Global fertilizer prices have surged for the second time in four years, driven by supply disruptions in one of the world’s most important production hubs. The Middle East produces and exports large volumes of urea, sulphur, and ammonia—essential components in nitrogen fertilizers used to sustain annual yields for crops like wheat, corn, and rice.

Now, much of that flow has slowed or stopped.

Shipping through Hormuz has been severely restricted by the conflict, halting exports from Gulf producers including Qatar, one of the world’s largest urea suppliers. At least 2 million metric tons of urea production—roughly 3% of annual seaborne trade—has reportedly been lost since the conflict began, while nearly 1 million tons already loaded onto vessels remain stranded in the Gulf.

The numbers feel technical.

Their consequences are not.

Nitrogen-based fertilizers must be applied every season for many crops. Reduce them, and yields fall. Protein content drops in wheat. Harvest quality weakens. Some farmers can cut back on phosphate or potash for a year without immediate damage. Nitrogen offers less forgiveness.

In 2022, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent fertilizer costs soaring, farmers were partly protected by high grain prices. Wheat and soybean prices rose enough to cushion the blow.

This year, the markets tell a different story.

After several strong global harvests, grain prices remain subdued. Chicago wheat prices are roughly half what they were four years ago. Soybeans are down nearly 50% from recent highs. The crops in the field are worth less, even as the nutrients needed to grow them cost more.

So farmers begin to recalculate.

Some may plant fewer acres of corn, a crop heavily dependent on nitrogen, and switch to soybeans. Others may gamble by applying less fertilizer and hoping for good weather. In developing countries, where credit is tighter and imports are essential, some may simply buy less and accept smaller harvests.

The gamble is global.

In India, buyers have reportedly paid nearly double for imported urea cargoes. In Australia, analysts warn of reduced application rates. In Brazil and Southeast Asia, traders are watching for delays and shortages. Across Europe, the squeeze deepens as Chinese export restrictions on phosphate coincide with war-related disruptions to sulphur and ammonia feedstocks.

Even if the war ended tomorrow, the strain would remain.

Clearing the backlog of vessels in Hormuz could take weeks. Restarting damaged production facilities could take months. Fertilizer availability may stay constrained well into the next planting season.

For now, the world’s grain reserves are relatively strong, thanks to recent abundant harvests.

That buys time.

But not certainty.

Food systems are often like weather patterns: the storm gathers before the rain arrives. A shortage of fertilizer in spring can become a shortage of grain in autumn. A smaller harvest can become higher food prices in winter. And in poorer nations, where food already takes most of a family’s income, even a small rise can become crisis.

So the world watches ships in a narrow sea and thinks of oil.

Farmers watch the same sea and think of wheat.

Of rice.

Of corn.

Of the fragile mathematics of survival.

And somewhere in the silence between the Gulf and the grain fields, next year’s harvest is already being decided.

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Sources Reuters International Food Policy Research Institute Bloomberg The Guardian Al-Monitor